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The challenge for Apple is going to be their unwillingness to integrate with others. Business Manager only integrates with MS Azure Active Directory for IAM. Th

The challenge for Apple is going to be their unwillingness to integrate with others. Business Manager only integrates with MS Azure Active Directory for IAM. The vast majority of small business do not have Azure Active Directory. They either have nothing, or they have Google Workspace. Apple needs to not just launch a competitor for AD. They need to properly support integrated directory services with a broader range of systems. Aside from that, they don't have an endpoint security solution, which is a necessary part of this package, ultimately, if they care going to replace JAMF, who is the real target/loser here. If Apple can do those two things... well... I'd switch in a heartbeat. Why? Well, their support story is going to be way better than JAMF. Also, I hate having multiple vendors when I can have just one. For those saying that Apple has no room left to grow... I expect this isn't the end of this for Apple going after business users. They need to roll Claris into the mix, stop acting like Numbers is a spreadsheet, and finally launch a cloud platform. There's many billions for them to make here.

borski 5y ago
I suspect integrating with Google is just a v2 feature.
- r00fus 5y ago
  Not to mention Okta, etc. Though for Apple's target market Azure was probably the best initial integration.
easton 5y ago
> vast majority of small business do not have Azure Active Directory Where are you from? On the east coast of the US, I find it uncommon to find small businesses who aren't still all in on Office, which if you've bought it in the last five years, was probably via a subscription that gives you Azure AD (and Exchange, Teams, etc). GSuite is still very uncommon in my experience outside of schools.
- sigmaml 5y ago
  Not GP, but in India (where I am from), Google Workspace is fairly common in SMBs. Also: https://www.statista.com/statistics/961105/japan-market-share-of-office-suites-technologies/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/961105/japan-market-shar... That report seems to indicate that Google Workspace is actually the leader even in the US!
jonathantf2 5y ago
At the MSP I work at every single customer we have uses Azure AD. G Suite isn't a proper business e-mail solution for a business with any more than 3 users - Exchange and Azure AD are the gold standard for cloud based office for SMB.
- agentdrtran 5y ago
  There are dozens of companies on g suite (ad others, like Zoho), I work with some that have 100,000+ seats. The idea that the only solution for businesses is MS products was never right before and isn't today.
- NovaS1X 5y ago
  Hard disagree. I work for a company of 5000+ users and we're full G-Suite now. We just went all in on Workspace. Previous two companies (650 users, 250 users), were also gull G-Suite.
- numbsafari 5y ago
  You can't possibly know what you are talking about if you are going to say that G Suite "isn't a proper business e-mail solution". Sorry, I know tons of highly effective organizations, large and small, that enjoy the benefits of using Workspace for email, calendaring, and the whole rest of the lot. Back in 2007, I was supporting massive educational organizations, with hundreds of thousands of users, to move their entire email and calendaring operations to the then-called GSuite. That was 14 years ago. Google created the cloud-based office solution. MS has been playing catch-up, trying to lovingly recreate the experience of managing an on-prem Windows/AD/Exchange stack for the metaverse equivalent of self flagellation.
- hackmiester 5y ago
  This is such a wild take to read on here. I kind of get where you’re coming from, but I just can’t make it line up with my reality. For reference, I hate Outlook and all its descendants, and I won’t work anywhere that uses them - but it’s never been a problem because everyone uses Google.
- cloudking 5y ago

borski 5y ago

I suspect integrating with Google is just a v2 feature.

r00fus 5y ago
Not to mention Okta, etc. Though for Apple's target market Azure was probably the best initial integration.

easton 5y ago

> vast majority of small business do not have Azure Active Directory Where are you from? On the east coast of the US, I find it uncommon to find small businesses who aren't still all in on Office, which if you've bought it in the last five years, was probably via a subscription that gives you Azure AD (and Exchange, Teams, etc). GSuite is still very uncommon in my experience outside of schools.

sigmaml 5y ago
Not GP, but in India (where I am from), Google Workspace is fairly common in SMBs. Also: https://www.statista.com/statistics/961105/japan-market-share-of-office-suites-technologies/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/961105/japan-market-shar... That report seems to indicate that Google Workspace is actually the leader even in the US!

jonathantf2 5y ago

At the MSP I work at every single customer we have uses Azure AD. G Suite isn't a proper business e-mail solution for a business with any more than 3 users - Exchange and Azure AD are the gold standard for cloud based office for SMB.

agentdrtran 5y ago
There are dozens of companies on g suite (ad others, like Zoho), I work with some that have 100,000+ seats. The idea that the only solution for businesses is MS products was never right before and isn't today.
NovaS1X 5y ago
Hard disagree. I work for a company of 5000+ users and we're full G-Suite now. We just went all in on Workspace. Previous two companies (650 users, 250 users), were also gull G-Suite.
numbsafari 5y ago
You can't possibly know what you are talking about if you are going to say that G Suite "isn't a proper business e-mail solution". Sorry, I know tons of highly effective organizations, large and small, that enjoy the benefits of using Workspace for email, calendaring, and the whole rest of the lot. Back in 2007, I was supporting massive educational organizations, with hundreds of thousands of users, to move their entire email and calendaring operations to the then-called GSuite. That was 14 years ago. Google created the cloud-based office solution. MS has been playing catch-up, trying to lovingly recreate the experience of managing an on-prem Windows/AD/Exchange stack for the metaverse equivalent of self flagellation.
hackmiester 5y ago
This is such a wild take to read on here. I kind of get where you’re coming from, but I just can’t make it line up with my reality. For reference, I hate Outlook and all its descendants, and I won’t work anywhere that uses them - but it’s never been a problem because everyone uses Google.
cloudking 5y ago